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It brings the official figures more into line with house price data published by firms including Nationwide and Halifax.

The revamped index is designed to combat perceived flaws with existing measures identified by the Government in 2010. It combines ONS and Land Registry data.

Andrew Tyrie, who is the Tory chairman of the Treasury committee, said ministers and Bank of England policymakers were having to work with statistics tarred by poor data collection and production – what he called 'rubbish in, rubbish out statistics'.

Statisticians said the typical home actually cost £209,000 in April, compared with their much higher March estimate of £301,000

David Hollingworth of mortgage broker London & Country said: 'We should be able to trust the ONS to be able to produce more reliable figures on house prices. There is such huge disparity between all the different indices it is not helpful for anyone when trying to work out what's going on in the housing market. It is very confusing for homeowners, but it is important to remember that none of this has changed the value of individuals' homes.'

The ONS yesterday said house prices jumped 8.2 per cent to £209,054 in the year to April under its new measure.

This marked a slight slowdown from the 8.4 per cent growth registered in the year to March.

The North East saw the lowest annual price growth in the country with an increase of 0.1 per cent to £121,719. In London, prices soared 14.5 per cent to £470,025.

An ONS spokesman said: 'This is a purely technical change in calculating average house prices which has no impact on the real value of anyone's home.'

n Inflation remained unchanged last month as the rising cost of transport and eating out was offset by sliding prices for clothing and food. The ONS said Consumer Price Index inflation was 0.3 per cent in May, the same as in April – when it fell for the first time since last September.